Aid to the Church in Need: Will India reignite after the recent death of a Christian in Orissa?

Will India reignite after the recent death of a Christian in Orissa?

Posted by Press release on 24/2/2009, 10:20 am
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ACN News, Tuesday, 24rd February 2009 – INDIA

Will India reignite?

By John Newton

THE killing of a Christian in Orissa, eastern India, has reignited fears of yet another wave of violence and put the breaks on displaced faithful returning home.
Shock spread fast across Orissa’s Kandhamal district late last week with the discovery of the body of 45-year-old Hrudyananda Nayak.
His face was badly damaged and there were ‘blood spots’ all over his body, according to reports.
Now, in an interview with the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need, Fr Madan Singh, spokesman for Archbishop Raphael Cheenath of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar, said Christians are terrified of an attack being launched against them.
More than 10,000 people from Kandhamal still live in displacement camps more than six months on from one of the worst outbreaks of anti-Christian persecution and now they are more afraid than ever of returning home.
Fr Singh said: “People from relief camps have been slowly returning to their villages. But after this incident, the fear has been doubled, movement has been controlled, suspicion has increased.
“People now fear to go back to their villages.”
Mr Nayak was last seen on Wednesday (18th February) evening after leaving his village of Rudangia in Kandhamal to accompany his older sister to her village of Bandeau. He did not return.
It is alleged that an eyewitness saw Mr Nayak being stopped by a group of Hindu extremists.
Barely 24 hours later, on the evening of Thursday, 19th February, his body was found among some rocks in a forest.
Neighbour ‘Pinku’ Digal of Rudangia gave a graphic description of Mr Nayak’s wounds, saying he was convinced it was murder.
With family and friends trying to comfort Mr Nayak’s wife, Rina, and children Jesia and Saibil, police have so far refused to confirm allegations of murder.
Rudangia, a mainly Christian village about 161miles (260km) from the state capital Bhubaneswar, bore the brunt of the violence that erupted in Kandhamal at Christmas 2007 and again last August-September.
Latest reports state 80 people were killed as extremists went on the rampage in nearly 300 villages with destruction to nearly 6,000 homes and nearly 300 churches.
Since the violence ACN has received only one confirmed incident of violence – an arson attacks on two Christian-run grocery stores in a village outside the Kandhamal town of Mondasore – but many Christians are still afraid of returning home, despite attempts by the Church to assure them it is safe to do so.
Hindu extremists attacked Christian homes and the local church in Rudangia on 30th September following the death of Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati, a senior member of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad Party.

(The aftermath of an attack on the pastoral centre, Konjamendi, Kandhamal, Orissa)

Editor’s Notes:

Directly under the Holy See, Aid to the Church in Need supports the faithful wherever they are persecuted, oppressed or in pastoral need. ACN is a Catholic charity – helping to bring Christ to the world through prayer, information and action.

Founded in 1947 by Fr Werenfried van Straaten, whom Pope John Paul II named “An Outstanding Apostle of Charity”, the organisation is now at work in about 145 countries throughout the world.

The charity undertakes thousands of projects every year including providing transport for clergy and lay Church workers, construction of church buildings, funding for priests and nuns and help to train seminarians. Since the initiative’s launch in 1979, 45 million Aid to the Church in Need Child’s Bibles have been distributed worldwide.

For more information, please contact the Australian office of ACN on (02) 9679-1929. e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org or write to Aid to the Church in Need PO Box 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148. Web: www.aidtochurch.org

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Aid to the Church in Need PO Box 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148 ABN: 62 418 911 594
Ph/Fax (02) 9679-1929 e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org web: www.aidtochurch.org